Enstrom 480B gets glass

Enstrom Helicopter selected the Garmin G1000H integrated flight deck for its light single turbine 480B, the company announced March 5 at Helicopter Association International’s Heli-Expo in Las Vegas.

The glass cockpit technology will reduce wire count and overall weight and simplify installation and maintenance, Enstrom said in a news release. The G1000H presents information on two 10.4-inch, high-resolution screens and supports features such as Helicopter Synthetic Vision Technology, Helicopter Terrain Awareness and Warning System (HTAWS), datalink weather, Garmin’s traffic awareness and collision avoidance system, and more.

”Garmin’s state of the art G1000H integrated flight deck will provide our operators all the information they need in an intuitive package,” said Bill Taylor, Enstrom’s director of engineering. “The nature of the display reduces the pilot’s scan to a smaller area, resulting in less time looking inside the cockpit. The synthetic vision and the navigation display provide excellent situational awareness and dramatically reduce the pilot’s workload. Added options, such as traffic and weather increase the utility and provide an added safety margin.”

Michigan-based Enstrom was purchased in December by Chongqing Helicopter Investment Co. Ltd in Chongqing, China. The company said in a media release that the new owner “is focused on helping Enstrom expand its reach into China and the rest of the world.” It added that new ownership will offer opportunities to improve products, provide manufacturing support, and provide for funding for new product development.

Employment at Enstrom has grown 50 percent over the past 18 months, the company said, and it will almost double the size of its Menominee, Mich., facility to address higher production rates.